(not at all) Magic Bag of Tricks part three

 Just imagine every other word is a profanity. Pick whichever ones you like.

I tried to start on one side, and work my way around.

I like a profanity with a bilabial fricative, myself.

Blue tape worked better than clips (which slid) and is easily removed and reapplied.

Endlessly.

Because this keeps not wanting to sit in the frame.

"HOLY MOTHER OF PEARL" is the most family friendly one I used here.

It keeps popping out.

SO MANY BAD WORDS RIGHT HERE

Tacky Glue will dry. It will get tacky in less than a year, and it does dry reasonably clear. I can also trim off the excess, if I give a damn about that by the end of this

(and eventually I will)

It is supposed to fit. The pattern and the frame go together. The toile worked.

This ..... is not working.

The toile was in a woven fabric. You cannot overestimate how much squish/stretch/flex you get with a woven, even an upholstery weight. This one will just NOT.

This is a reverse angle trying to use the camera to see if the corner is sitting in the frame or not.

It's... mostly in there? I don't dare pick it up to turn it over to see (working from the lining inside).

I'm going to put glue on string to fill out the gap between the fabric and the frame, and secure the bond (so the bag doesn't drop off the frame)

I know, the glue should go in, and then the string. And on this part, that's what I did.

Remember, every other word is a bad word.

This was a naughty project.

At this point, glue is everywhere (some of those spots are polka dots, some are NOT) and I have ceased to care. I just want to finish it so it's done and I can stop pretending to finish it.

So much profanity.

So Much Glue

I got glue on all my fingers.

Getting a store bought handle. don't even ask about the one I made for it.

this is just so not my jam....well, I had to add hardware and rivets (which is ME), but still so not my jam.

Should not have trimmed the end (you can see the wadding if you look in). didn't trim the other.

Getting rings to go on rings is easier with a pair of narrow needlenose plyers. They don't have to be great, but they do need small noses.

This is it's senior year book photo. Color adjusted. Vignette. 

And now I am so done with this. I will clean up the glue on the other side some other time. But now I am FREE and I do feel much better about it.

If I only carried a purse, this would be it.

(not so) Magic Bag Of Tricks part two

 I have been poking at this this project for over two years

Felix the Cat's Magic Bag of Tricks

Here's the Loungefly version of it

It ground to a halt when I glued the interior seams over and the glue did not dry.

Not even the glue that was exposed to the air.

Two years later, it's still gooey.

but a gal needs to finish what she started...

Here's the pattern

It's a frame purse, and yes, I did buy the appropriately sized frame.

But maybe not designed for pleather. 

Last week I posted the basic construction.

Now I'm trying to finish it.

I made a template to mark the holes for the bag feet

Also used one of the templates as an interior support for the feet

Secured the prongs with gaffers tape.

I remembered I wanted to add an interior pocket to the lining (this is the lining turned right side out). I didn't add a closure at the top. I may regret that. I did not use that Fabric Fusion glue. 

The lining is clipped to the exterior after I finished the interior pocket, and I handbasted it together

 Looks good! Maybe I should stop here.

However, no one prepared me for what a pain in the keister attaching the frame to the bag.

Holy mother of pearl.

(I used all the swears up. I am still using them up. I have none to spare for this post)

The glueing part gets its own post. Which may not be SFW.

And a side note: Bernadette gets Deadpool better than she knows

https://youtu.be/J7zBF-_uz3U?t=790

Deadpool sewing commentary, but no pouches on this reel.

 

Not so magic bag of tricks part one

(I just realized that I wrote this post over a year ago, January 10, 2021, and didn't post it because I wasn't done with the project.

I'm still not, but I am posting this because I hope to be one with this soon. Like later this week. Done or throwing it into the scrap pile done. Here is the journey's start)

Felix the Cat's magic bag of tricks was a lot like Mary Poppin's carpetbag: any number of useful plot devices could be pulled from it. One gruesome family joke was "I'll just reach into my magic bag of tricks and pull out a cure for cancer! Oops, it's a Thompson submachine gun!"

Well, my mother with cancer laughed.

So maybe I still want the bag.

But I don't want a Felix head on my bag. Felix doesn't have one on his, he just wears his head on his body.

And I can make my own pleather print on Contrado

So I waited for a sale. I bought this fabric in March 2020.

And I found a similar-ish pattern and hardware on Emmaline Bags

I had to scale the bag to the length of the frame. A longer frame would have been more appropriate to the original, but I could not conveniently source one.

Test fit the paper pattern and made a toile

And then cut my precious fabric

 

Sewed it

Tested glue to hold the seams flat

The tests both worked.

 

And this is where it goes awry

Clamping doesn't get the glue to spread evenly

So I wrap a brick for a weight

And the glue stops drying.

I was a studio art major in college, and we used to sing a little song about acrylic paint, ala Air Supply's "Love is Like Oxygen":

"Love is like Liquitex

Get too much and it won't dry 

Not enough and you want to cry."

I have too much.

This was June. 

It's September.

It's still not dry.

----

November.

By this point, I just move the box the project is in around. It's too tall to pile on top of

(photo of WIP stac)

I hand stitch down the seam allowances.

One does have to wipe down the needle and the thread with Goo Gone to get things to progress, but this project's progress has been so weird, nothing surprises me now. It's like sewing through rubber cement now. 

This should help figure out how to get the fabric into the frame

https://youtu.be/xEGKckk2WV0?t=1161

Well, in theory it would. If I used woven fabric...it would be very good.

(to be continued)

Pen Pouch Toile Purse: Not my best work by far

It's goofing off time.

(well, I finished the shirt and another couple knit shirts and am stalling on the next shirt cause I don't like my present pattern and need a new one to make too many of)

 I am going to make myself a couple of the Ikat Bag pen cases, 

http://www.ikatbag.com/2013/10/marker-pouch.html

but I had to goof around with this idea first. 

I hand basted this first, to get the zipper placed correctly. Yes, I had to break out the pliers to pull the needle through.

And I used a metal zip because I have a lot of metal zip 

Scuba or it's pals needs something to anchor the stitching on the outsides, so I have made a sandwich of the zipper, the scuba, and some rick rack because I love rick rack.

and if you used a coil zipper in an loop, it would work*. Also if you made the fabric part have a little dish shape to it (do a little cornerfold/gather at the  corners) it would be the useful tray I need to wrangle my pens and put them away at the end of the day.

Hello!

It needs tabs at the zip ends (the safety pins would be temporary)  and some shaping to make it more tray and less landing pad (which has its charms)

this style does not work with this zipper (metal zip is too stiff). But I am keeping it anyway as a sample i can refer back to.

(* I cannot find a tutorial on the interwebs of how this works. I'm....shocked. I also can't find an example of this on anything anymore. Did we fall out of love with this application? Do I have to make one to see WHY we don't do this anymore?

Oh dear, I fear that I do)

And I am revisiting this 

which I will talk about later, except to say

the glue on the seams is still not dry, two years later

EEEEEEEEK